interested parties who were at length admitted into the committee, Pierre d'Ailli, the Cardinal of Cambrai, was one.

The College appears to have held its first deliberations on the 20th of August; and the subject to which they were directed was the translation of bishops. Other important matters were discussed by it during the autumn following; but whether it was paralyzed by the pontifical intrigues, or whether some of its members were deficient in zeal, its exertions did not keep pace with the eagerness of the reformers without. The German 'Nation' published, about the end of the year, a remonstrance against the tediousness of its proceedings; the pulpits of Constance resounded with expressions of exhortation and reproof; and elegies, and squibs, and satires were circulated to the same effect in the social, and even in the public, meetings of the fathers.

Divisions, ending in the election of Martin V.

The labours of the committee were continued through the whole of 1416 till late in the succeeding year; and by that time, as we shall see presently, they had produced many wise and salutary resolutions. But in the course of 1417 a new subject of controversy arose, which deeply affected the success of those measures. As soon as the See, through the cession or deposition of its three claimants, was declared vacant, a very important question was moved-whether it were not wise to defer the new election, until after the work of reformation should have been accomplished. Whatever was honest and intelligent and dispassionate in the party of the reformers maintained the necessity of that expedient. They knew the ambitious and selfish spirit of papacy; they knew how the elevation to the apostolical chair could blight the best principles, and contract the noblest heart; they knew that disinterested integrity in that situation was beyond the magnanimity of man. They determined not to create with their own hands a destroyer of their own works. The nations, which took this side in the dispute, were the Germans and the English, and they were supported with the utmost sincerity and firmness by the Emperor. The Cardinals conducted the opposite party with equal constancy and greater craft: they were warmly supported by the Italians; the Spaniards, who on the deposition of Luna had been admitted to the deliberations, were on the same side; and even the French, hitherto the most enlightened advocates of reform*, for the most part, threw themselves into the ranks of its opponents. The contest continued during the whole summer-numerous harangues were delivered, and much violence and much sophistry was wasted on both sides. On the one hand, the universal deformity and prostitution of the Church were exhibited and exaggerated in the most furious invectives; on the other, it was argued that the Church without the Pope was a headless trunk, which was indeed the most frightful of all deformities; and that it became, in consequence, the first duty of every reformer to supply that deficiency (such was the nonsense seriously propounded by the friends of corruption) and thus restore the spiritual body to its integrity.

This was indeed the last ground of hope which remained to the cardinals; and it was really firm and tenable, because the majority of the nations had declared in their favour. They contested it with every weapon, and with the uncompromising, unscrupulous activity of men, whose personal interests were concerned in the result. On one occasion

This sudden change is ascribed to their national jealousy of the English, the victors of Agincourt.

they presented a memorial to Sigismond, in which they urged, on the plea of their majority, their right to proceed to immediate election: at the same time they affected to repel, with some loftiness, the imperial interference in matters strictly ecclesiastical. On another, they published an offensive libel upon the Germans, in which they accused that nation of a disposition to favour the opinions of the Hussites-to defer the election of a Pope, in order to reform, without his co-operation, his office and his court, savoured strongly (so the cardinals argued) of the anti-papal perversion of those heretics! The stigma of heresy a weapon which the defenders of ecclesiastical abuses have managed with great address in every age of the Church-exasperated those honest and orthodox Christians, and they repelled it with great, and (as they thought) virtuous indignation. About the same time Robert Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, died. He was among the stoutest of the Reformers of Constance, and had exercised very considerable influence, not only over the councils of his compatriots, but over the mind of the Emperor himself*.

On the 9th of September, five days after his decease, an assembly was held on the same subject; and the result was a remonstrance, in the name of the cardinals, to Sigismond, on the extreme danger impending over the Church from any delay in the election of a Pope. It is remarkable, that the language of this document expressed a sense of the necessity of reform, and great readiness to undertake it; but it was urged, that the question ought to be deferred, until a head had been given to the Church. But the Emperor rose ere the Address was finished, and indignantly quitted the Assembly. Howbeit, the cardinals persisted, without any fear or compromise; two days afterwards, a second † memorial, more explicit and decided than the former, was presented and read; and so firm was the attitude of that party, that the only two members of the sacred college, who had hitherto supported the opposite opinions, now joined their colleagues. A still more important defection immediately followed this; the English also passed over to the papal party.

From the moment that the decision of the majority of the Council was contravened by Sigismond, it was very easy to persuade even the most honest reformers, that the dignity and authority of the whole assembly was at stake, and that it was the duty of all parties to combine, in order to repel the presumptuous interference of the Emperor-and many were probably influenced in their change by that motive. But the Germans still maintained their former resolution; and though many of them also may have been guided by considerations (of nationality, or loyalty) foreign to the original question of reform, a fresh memorial, which they immediately presented to the Council, pressed very forcibly the real argument on which the contest now turned. In this paper they maintained, with great boldness and reason, that the General Council stood in the place of the Church and completely represented it; that the schism had arisen from the general corruption of that body, and that such corruption could only be remedied during the vacancy of the See; that if a Pope were once elected-however virtuous and upright the individual exalted might be, however proved and old in integrity and piety-he would speedily be stained by the vices which infected the Chair, and debased the ecclesiastics surrounding it; that he would grope in the darkness and

*Von der Hardt calls him Cæsar's fidus Achates.

They may both be found in the first volume of Von der Hardt's Hist. Cons. Constat. Præfat. in part. xx. p. 916 et seq.

solitude of his own honesty, till his private excellence would give way before the overwhelming depravities of a system, which no man could possibly administer, and be virtuous,-while, on the other hand, a substantial reform, previously effected, would shelter him from the pressure of unjust and wicked solicitations.' The wisdom and truth contained in these positions inflamed still further the perversity of the cardinals; and what they could not hope to effect by reason, or even by menace, they prepared to accomplish by more certain means. Among the German prelates there were two, who possessed, more completely than their brethren, the confidence both of the Emperor and the Nation'-the Archbishop of Riga and the Bishop of Coire. Each of these respectable persons had private reasons (which were not concealed from the cardinals) for being discontented with his own See. A negotiation was opened. To the former they promised the bishopric of Liege, which he coveted; to the latter, the archbishopric of Riga-both were converted. Their compatriots followed them; and the tumults, which had shaken the Council for so many months, were appeased by the translation of two venal prelates*.

The Emperor, thus deserted by the entire Church, still offered an ineffectual show of resistance; and at length, to throw at least some dignity over his defeat, he stipulated as the conditions of his consent, that the Pope should enter, without any delay, even before his coronation, upon the work of reform; that he should conduct it in concert with the Council; and that he should not depart from Constance, until his task was accomplished. The cardinals, with their coadjutors †, soon afterwards assembled in conclave, and on the 11th of November following, Martin V., an Italian and a Roman, was raised to the pontifical throne.

The historian cannot fail to perceive, what was indeed obvious at the time to the most intelligent men of both parties, that the battle of reform had in fact been fought on other ground, and that the field, for which so many efforts had been made, and were still to be made, was already lost. Some nominal improvements might yet, perhaps, be extorted from the reluctant pontiff-some trifling abuses he might be brought to sacrifice, in order to save and perpetuate the rest-with some unmeaning shadow he might consent to amuse and delude the world-but the hope of any substantial measure of renovation was gone. Notwithstanding the strong sense of the Church's degradation and danger, with which so many of the fathers were deeply penetrated-notwithstanding the security and even applause, with which their complaints and invectives were uttered and heard-notwithstanding the learning, the virtue, and the powerful talents which were united in the same cause,-it was no difficult matter for a small body of very crafty ecclesiastical politicians, closely bound together by common and personal interests, and wholly unscrupulous as to means, to neutralize the exertions of a much more numerous party, which, though earnestly bent on one general purpose, might be divided as to a thousand particulars. For a space of nearly three years numberless causes of discord, personal, professional, national, might spring up, while the watchful cardinals were ever at hand to encourage and mature them. Every change of circumstance presented a new field of action; and in so harassing and protracted a contest, superior, discipline, and a keener sense of interest, might finally supplant or wear away the adverse majority.

Moreover, the College could always count, with perfect confidence, on

* Von der Hardt, tom. iv. p. 1426.

See the preceding chapter, page 538.

the zeal and fidelity of its Italian allies. The whole multitude of the Transalpine clergy conspired, with scarcely an individual exception, in opposition to reform. Yet this combination did not, probably, arise, either because they were very rich, or very powerful, The Italian Clergy. or very generally demoralized. In riches, the bishops and abbots of Italy could bear no comparison with the lordly hierarchy of Germany or England; partly, because their disproportionate numbers diminished the share of each in the common fund, and partly, because the private devotion of antient days had there been less munificent than among the younger and ruder proselytes of the north. In power, and popular influence, they were precluded from any extravagant progress by the wider diffusion of intelligence, and the free and daring spirit of the prevalent republicanism. In truth, among the Italian people, the last sparks of religious fervor were at this time nearly extinct; and whatever attachment they still retained for their Church was without enthusiasm, and not uncommonly without faith. The venerable family of Saints, once so fruitful in every province, was now rarely and languidly propagated. The din of polemical controversy, the surest indication of theological zeal, was seldom heard ; and even heresy itself, which was building its indestructible temples in the north and west of Europe, gave little occupation or solicitude to the Churchmen of Italy. Many of the causes which tend generally to swell sacerdotal authority (we are not now speaking of the peculiar dominion of the Pope) had ceased to operate in that country. In morality, the Italian clergy were upon the whole less dissolute than those to the North of the Alps; and for that reason they were less deeply impressed with the necessity of reform. To this praise the Court of Rome did, indeed, present an infamous exception. But the pontifical palace may seem to have attracted to its own precincts most of the noxious vapours, which else would have spread more general infection; and the prelates of Italy found their profit in the very vices of Rome. Besides, they had been so long habituated to consider the authority of that See as national property, and shared with such selfish exultation the glory of its foreign triumphs and the sense of its imposing majesty, that they rallied round it with ardour, on the first rumour of hostility. They saw that some of its dearest prerogatives were threatened-they saw that some of its most profitable usurpations were assailed: but they did not see the FRIENDLINESS Of the design-they did not perceive that an increase of vigour and stability would assuredly follow the immediate sacrifice :-they snatched at the short-sighted policy of the moment, and, by defending the abuses of their Church, ensured its downfal.

On the 30th of October, in the interval between the triumph of the cardinals and the election of the Pope, the fortieth, one of the most important sessions of the Council, took place. Then was made a very seasonable effort, on the part of the reformers, to impose some specific obligation upon the future Pope; and on this occasion the scheme, which the Committee of Reform had been so long engaged in preparing, was formally approved, and recommended to the immediate adoption of

the pontiff and Council-for the majority were of Reformation. still sincere in their intentions, though they had blindly cast away the means of effecting them. To do justice to this subject, we must shortly mention the heads of this project; since it may be considered as embracing the utmost extent of change which it was thought expedient, or found possible, under

any circumstances to introduce. The Articles, to which the future reformation was to be directed, were eighteen :-(1) The number, the quality, and the nation of the cardinals; (2) The Reservations of the Holy See; (3) Annates; (4) Collations of benefices and expectative graces; (5) What causes ought to be treated in the Court of Rome; (6) Appeals to the same Court; (7) The offices of the Chancery and Penitentiary; (8) Exemptions granted, and unions made, during the schism; (9) Commendams; (10) The confirmation of elections; (11) Intermediates, i. e. revenues during vacancy; (12) Alienation of the property of the Roman and other Churches; (13) In what cases a Pope may be corrected and deposed, and by what means; (14) The extirpation of Simony; (15) Dispensations; (16) Provision for the Pope and the Cardinals; (17) Indulgences; (18) Tenths. To these it should be added, that, in the session preceding, a Decree had passed to regulate, and secure, as far as possible, the periodical meeting of General Councils.

In the resolutions, which the Committee published respecting the above Articles, a sort of principle is discernible, of throwing aside the new canon law, and reviving in its place the more discreet and venerable institutions of more antient days. Thus they resolved, that the Popes should judge no important cause without the counsel of his Cardinals and even, in some instances, without the approbation of a General Council. And again, that there were certain cases in which a Pope might be judged and deposed-decisions wholly at variance with the canons of the Vatican, which committed to the Pope alone all judgment of major causes, and gave authority to Bulls, originating with himself; and which also laid it down, that a Pope could not be judged or deposed on any other charge, than that of heresy.

The Committee of Reform also prohibited the Popes from reserving the spoils of the bishops, the revenues of va

cant benefices, and the procurations, or provi- Regarding the Pope. sions made for bishops during their visitations.

It imposed some restraint on pluralities and dispensations. The Pope was forbidden to permit the same person to hold more than one bishopric or abbey at the same time, unless with the consent of the sacred college, and for important reasons-though even this restriction appears to have been liable to exceptions, in countries especially where the benefices were poort. Another resolution enforced the residence of the higher clergy, on pain of deprivation in case of six months of absence, unless with special permission from the Pope. Another forbade the Pope to impose tenths on his clergy, without the consent of a General Council. Another revoked, with some trifling exceptions, all the exemptions which had been granted during the schism. The abuse of exemptions had,

* On the subject of reservations, Lenfant remarks, that Mental Reservations of benefices were not yet introduced. These differed from others in that they were not published. If a benefice was vacant, and either the ordinary had conferred it, or any one went to Rome to obtain it, the datary would answer, that the Pope had made a mental reservation to present it to whom he thought proper.

+ In Apulia, for example, and in some parts of Spain, the reformers allowed the Pope to give dispensation for four benefices. In England, on the other hand, they would not permit it, on any account, to be granted for more than two. Clemangis asserts (De Corrupto Ecclesiæ Statu, cap. xi,) that there were at that time ecclesiastics who held as many as five hundred ample benefices.' And the same writer further affirms, 'that the monks of his day were at the same time monks, canons, regular, secular; that, under the same habit, they possessed the rights, offices, and benefices of all orders and of all pro fessions. Lenf. Hist. Conc. Const., 1. vii. s. xxxii,